LazyTown: The Movie
LazyTown: The Movie is a 2018 Icelandic-British-American-Canadian live-action/animated musical fantasy comedy-drama action-adventure family film based on the Icelandic children's educational musical comedy television series LazyTown, produced by LazyTown Entertainment, Sesame Workshop, and formerly Clearwater Animation (before they dropped out in December 2017), and distributed by Warner Bros. Pictures, the film is part live-action, part puppetry (most notably the Muppets), part hand-drawn animation, and part computer-generated imagery. The film was directed by series creator Magnus Scheving and co-directed by Mike Mitchell. In the film, Robbie Rotten tries to banish Sportacus from LazyTown and kill him so Robbie Rotten can take over the whole LazyTown and turn LazyTown back into its former state of being a lazy town. So, its up to Sportacus to save LazyTown. The film stars the regular television cast of Magnús Scheving, Chloe Lang, Stefán Karl Stefánsson, Gudmundur Thor Karason, Jodi Eichelberger, Ronald Binion, David Matthew Feldman, Julie Westwood, and Aymee Garcia, who reprised their roles as Sportacus, Stephanie, Robbie Rotten, Ziggy, Trixie, Stingy, Pixel, Mayor Milford, and Bessie Busybody respectively. Sportacus was later played by Dyri Kristjansson for the opening sequences and the rest of the film. The film also stars the returning characters from the original Icelandic LazyTown plays which include Jives (a lethargic boy played by Zachary Gordon), a money-wasting beggar (played by Jack Black), a police officer (played by Will Smith), a mailman (played by Seth Rogen), and Haninn (a lazy rooster puppeteered by Gudmundur Thor Karason and voiced by Owen Wilson). New additions to the cast of characters include Sportacette (a new and original live-action character and Sportacus's love interest played by Scarlett Johansson), Stingy's parents (Stingy's dad is puppeteered and voiced by Eric Jacobson while Stingy's mom is puppeteered and voiced by Stephanie D'Abruzzo), Caramelphanie (another original live-action character and Stephanie's long-lost sister played by Julianna Rose Mauriello, an actress who first played Stephanie from LazyTown), LazyBot 1000 (a new and original CGI animated character with hand-drawn cartoon movements translated into CGI; Robbie Rotten's latest invention of trying to banish Sportacus from LazyTown and kill him so Robbie Rotten can take over the whole LazyTown and turn LazyTown back into its former state of being a lazy town; voiced by Bill Hader), Ronald the Apple Worm (a hand-drawn animated character with a head shaped like an apple and a body shaped like a worm; one of the minor characters of the film; voiced by Tom Kenny), the Lazies (a group of hand-drawn and CGI animated anthropomorphic potatoes that are very lazy couch potatoes; tiny creatures in LazyTown and Robbie Rotten's minions; all voiced by Frank Welker, Dee Bradley Baker, Tom Kenny, and Rob Paulsen), Thomas the Banana Dog (a hand-drawn animated character who looks like a banana, but has human and dog characteristics and can talk like a real human; voiced by Jason Bateman), and Ronald's parents (Ronald's mom is voiced by Tara Strong, the voice of Twilight Sparkle from My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic, while his dad is voiced by Arthur Holden; both of these characters are hand-drawn animated). Cameo appearances for the film include Big Bird (from Sesame Street; puppeteered by Matt Vogel and voiced by Caroll Spinney), Kermit the Frog (from The Muppet Show; puppeteered and voiced by Matt Vogel), and Elmo (also from Sesame Street; puppeteered and voiced by Ryan Dillon). Warner Bros. Pictures announced the film in August 2014. 65% of the film was shot at Warner Bros. Studios in Burbank, California. Additional shooting was done in Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada. The opening scene was shot in Iceland and in Surrey, England, UK. Principal photography lasted from August 2016 to July 2017. LazyTown: The Movie held its world premiere at the Fox Village Theater in Los Angeles on September 29, 2018, and was released in the United States on October 12, 2018, 4 years after the show ended. It also serves as the series finale of the said show. This is also the final film role for Stefán Karl Stefánsson, who died nearly 2 months before the film was released, and the film is dedicated to his memory. LazyTown: The Movie received critical acclaim from both critics and audiences worldwide and became a box office success as it grossed $654 million worldwide compared to its $190 million budget. LazyTown: The Movie won the National Board of Review award for the best film of 2018, and was also chosen as one of the top 10 films of the year by the American Film Institute. The film received numerous accolades and nominations, and at the 91st Academy Awards won Best Picture, Best Director for Scheving, Best Supporting Actor for Will Smith, Best Adapted Screenplay, Best Sound Mixing, Best Production Design, Best Cinematography, Best Film Editing, and Best Visual Effects. The film also won the Producers Guild of America Award for Best Theatrical Motion Picture and five Golden Globe Awards, Screen Actors Guild, and BAFTA awards. A sequel is in development with Scheving returning to write and direct. Plot The beginning of the film took place before the events of LazyTown, which is a children's television show by the way, where Haninn the Rooster appears in 1703 as the narrator of the whole entire film. Haninn tells the audience a story where a group of 711 lazy Icelandic people settled on an empty plain to build the laziest town at Iceland in 1703 known as "LazyTown". Many years later in 1964, Sportacus was born and was named after his parents, Mr. and Mrs. Sportacus, both of which are the physical education teachers of the LazyTown School. At age 6, when Sportacus was a little child, he had watched many exercise films and decided to become an athlete. So, he began doing some exercises, and his parents saw what he was doing and they were very proud of him. 5 years later, in 1975, while Sportacus was at PE in the LazyTown School, another child was born. His name was Robbie Rotten, and he lives in a very boring and lazy life with his lazy parents, Mr. and Mrs. Rotten. Unlike Sportacus and his parents, the Rottens are very, very lazy, and Robbie likes to be lazy. In 1988, Sportacus became an athlete and he participated in the 1988 Summer Olympics that took place in Seoul, South Korea. In 1994, when Sportacus became popular in LazyTown, Robbie Rotten, at the age of 19, became a very sneaky and very lazy criminal of LazyTown when he killed Sportacus's parents with a gun. Sportacus, at age 30, was sad that his parents were dead, but was angry because Robbie killed them on purpose. Sportacus later gets revenge on Robbie for killing his parents, and so they started fighting. Sportacus finally defeated Robbie with bananas and banana peels and calls the police on him. Robbie was soon arrested and Sportacus became the athletic superhero of LazyTown. LazyTown was soon changed from a very lazy town into a very happy, very healthy, and very safe one. 2 years later after Robbie Rotten's first defeat, Stephanie was born in the United States where she lived with her parents, Mr. and Mrs. Meanswell. At age 6, when her parents died from a double homicide, she migrated to Iceland. She was later sent to an Icelandic orphanage. 2 years later, her foster mother, the owner of the Icelandic orphanage send Stephanie out of the orphanage, because she got a phone call from Stephanie's uncle, Milford Meanswell, the new and current mayor of LazyTown, that Stephanie should move to LazyTown because her uncle has to raise (or take care of) her. The main plot of the film took place on the present day and it also took place during and after the events of LazyTown, where Stephanie lives a happy and healthy life with her uncle, her uncle's secretary Bessie Busybody, Sportacus, and the other kids (Stingy, Ziggy, Trixie, and Pixel) while Robbie Rotten lives a very boring and lazy life in his secret underground lair underneath LazyTown. Robbie Rotten has been planning to get rid of Sportacus, which he called him "Sportaflop", and turn LazyTown back into its former state of being a lazy town for a very long time and was also planning of getting revenge on Sportacus. Soon, Robbie had an idea, which is a very awful idea, and he made a new invention called the LazyBot 1000. The LazyBot is Robbie's latest invention of trying to banish Sportacus from LazyTown and kill him so Robbie Rotten can take over the whole LazyTown and turn it back into a lazy town as before. Meanwhile, Stephanie and the others were exercising until Robbie Rotten came to them and Robbie Rotten said to everyone to show his latest invention, LazyBot 1000. It wanted everyone in LazyTown (including Sportacus and Stephanie) to be lazy again. Then, he said to kill Sportacus, and make LazyTown back to a Lazy Town. Then, Stephanie said, "Sportacus! Help!". Then, at Sportacus' airship, Sportacus was exercising. Then, his crystal beeps. Then Sportacus says, "Someone's in trouble". He then goes on his SkyChaser and goes to the containers, pushing the affected container forward and tightening the screw on it. In Robbie Rotten's lair, he calls Kermit the Frog on his cell phone and talks about something evil and bad with the letter B. He is also making everyone lazy as he plans to destroy LazyTown and renamed to RottenTown. Now Sportacus has arrived, and into Robbie Rotten's lair when Sportacus got thrown out of his lair. Stephanie breaks free and escapes Robbie Rotten's lair with the help of a female version of Sportacus called Sportacette. Meanwhile, Sportcaus went to a science laboratory called LazyTown Technologies, while searching for Robbie Rotten. He met Ronald the Apple Worm and Thomas the Banana Dog. Sportacus cons them into using their magic to send himself to LazyTown. The spell works. He finds Robbie Rotten and learn that he plans to kill Sportacus in his lair. Robbie Rotten and his minions had captured Stingy and Ziggy and sent them to prison. Then, Robbie Rotten and his minions sing "We Are Number One". Stephanie and Sportacette find a motel for the night, while they are escaping from LazyTown. Stephanie decides to call Sportacus with her iPhone. He was in danger, because Stingy and Ziggy were in jail. Stephanie and Sportacette needs to save them, and they meet Stephanie's long lost sister, Caramelphanie. Meanwhile in jail, Stingy and Ziggy tells about Robbie Rotten joining forces with his minions. Stingy then sings his mine song. Ziggy believes him, but Stingy doesn't believe him. When Robbie Rotten 2, disguised as a police officer, shouting "QUIET DOWN" to Stingy and Ziggy. Stingy strangles Ziggy each other for not believing him. Stingy plans to escape from prison. When they saw Stephanie, Sportacette and Caramelphanie, where Stephanie grows frustrated with their lack of initiative. Stingy, Ziggy, Stephanie, Sportacette and Caramelphanie are being heroes to save Sportacus, and Stingy gets parents. Back in Robbie Rotten's lair, he sets a bomb on everyone (minus Stingy) and Robbie Rotten tells them that the bomb is a timer and Robbie Rotten leaves the room. Then, Stingy, Ziggy, Stephanie, Sportacette and Caramelphanie are here to save them, stop the timer and they escape from Robbie Rotten's liar. When Robbie Rotten got in the room, he saw everyone were gone and the timer is stopped. He tells his minions to get them. When the gang escaped from Robbie Rotten's lair, they saw Robbie Rotten and his minions. Just as Robbie Rotten is about to kill Sportacus, while Robbie Rotten 2 could kill Stephanie along with the rest of the gang. Sportacus and the people of LazyTown confront Robbie Rotten. Trixie convinces Robbie Rotten to give up. Even Sportacus convinces Robbie Rotten and his minions to give up their evil ways, saying that just because they are being treated like losers doesn't mean that they have be losers. Touched, the villains agree to give up their evil ways, especially Robbie Rotten. Sportacus commands Robbie Rotten to die. He pulls out a cookie jar that transforms into a machine gun, and shoots at Sportacus's head to hurt him. Sportacus looked at the forehead, being broken, and he screams very loudly as Robbie Rotten hear the loud screaming noise and gave up his evil ways for good. Robbie Rotten has been cured, and was recovered from the screaming noise. Sportacus then killed Robbie Rotten, and was never heard from again. Back outside in the LazyTown City Hall, Sportacus and Stephanie, started a party that caused the entire city and gang to celebrate. And everybody lived happily ever after. In a post-credits scene, Robbie Rotten now went to heaven. He then sees Robbie Rotten's minions there. Robbie Rotten was shocked and yelled at Robbie Rotten's minions saying, "Who are you people??" Cast * Magnús Scheving as Sportacus * Chloe Lang as Stephanie * Stefán Karl Stefánsson as Robbie Rotten * Jason Bateman as Thomas the Banana Dog * Zachary Gordon as Jives * Jack Black as a money-wasting beggar * Will Smith as a police officer * Seth Rogen as a mailman * Julianna Rose Mauriello as Caramelphanie * Scarlett Johansson as Sportacette * Gudmundur Thor Karason as Ziggy * Jodi Eichelberger as Trixie * Ronald Binion as Stingy and Pixel * David Matthew Feldman as Mayor Milford * Julie Westwood as Bessie Busybody Sportacus * Owen Wilson as Hanninn * Eric Jacobson as Stingy's mom * Stephanie D'Abruzzo as Stingy's dad * Bill Hader as LazyBot 1000 * Tom Kenny as Ronald the Apple Worm * Frank Welker, John DiMaggio, Dee Bradley Baker, Tom Kenny, and Phil LaMarr as the Lazies * Tara Strong as Ronald's mom * Arthur Holden as Ronald's dad * Caroll Spinney as Big Bird * Matt Vogel as Kermit the Frog * Ryan Dillon as Elmo * Sportacus was later played by Dyri Kristjansson for the opening sequences and the rest of the film. Crew Coming soon! Production Development On August 16, 2014, the 10th anniversary of the premiere of LazyTown, a mysterious code was sent through LazyTown's Twitter. It read, “TGF6eVRvd246IFRoZSBNb3ZpZSBoYXMgYmVlbiBjb25maXJtZWQhDQpPY3RvYmVyIDEyLCAyMDE4“. Decoding it in Base64 reveals the hidden message: “LazyTown: The Movie has been confirmed!” Fans of LT were hyped after revealing the hidden message. On January 4, 2016, Warner Bros. officially confirmed the film and the release date and it would released on October 12, 2018. Magnus Scheving was announced to direct. In February 2016, it was announced that the Sesame Street characters would appear in the film. Titles that had been considered include, among others The LazyTown Movie, LazyTown Movie and LazyTown: The Motion Picture. Sesame Workshop began working on the sequel in March 2016 with Magnus Scheving. Magnus Scheving had also expressed hope to reprise his role, and in June 2016, it was confirmed that he would do so. By early July 2016, the first draft of the script was completed. Writing Coming soon! Story research & development Coming soon! Storyboards and designs Coming soon! Casting US casting was done by Ruth Lambert and Stephanie Klapper. Canadian casting was done by Coreen Mayrs and Heike Brandstatter. UK casting was done by Alex Kelly. Production design Coming soon! Sets designing and building Coming soon! Live-action filming Principal photography began in August 2016 at Warner Bros. Studios in Burbank, California. Additional shooting was done in Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada. The opening scene was shot in Iceland and London, England. Puppet designing and building Coming soon! 2D character animation The main animation studio for the film was Clearwater Animation in Clearwater, Florida. Additional animation was provided by Film Roman in Woodland Hills, California, Powerhouse Animation Studios in Austin, Texas, Chandelier Studios in San Mateo, California, Yowza Animation in Toronto, Ontario, Canada, Mercury Filmworks in Ottawa, Ontario, Canada, Bardel Entertainment in Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada, Toon City Animation in Manila, Philippines, and Feitong Cartoon in Hong Kong. CGI environment and animation C. Elbourn owned C.E. Animation Studios since 2011 to create 2D and CGI animation, Stop motion animation (such as Brickfilm and claymation), and live-action productions. C.E. Animation Studios contributes additional 2D animation clean-up and CGI animation for Magnus Scheving. 2D backgrounds were designed and painted by Magnus Scheving and C. Elbourn. CGI animation production began in April 2017. CGI animation was supervised by C. Elbourn, and most of the CGI was done at Digital eMation in Korea. The CGI props (outlined in 2D) are created by Reel FX Creative Studios. CGI backgrounds are made by C. Elbourn at C.E. Animation Studios, but they were outlined and traced with ink and colored with digital paint in 2D. Visual effects The visual effects production for the film began on March 5, 2017, where it iss supervised by C. Elbourn. Video editors, compositors, and visual effects artists edited the film just by importing 2D images and 3D animated footage as the backgrounds. They also imported digital hand-drawn animated footage with the vector background as their cels that really needs editing and compositing along with the backgrounds. They even add CGI animated footage with the vector background as their cels, so they composite the backgrounds and the animation cels to make it look like fantasy in the final cut. Magnus Scheving worked to animate the LazyBot 1000 sequences with help from Caleb Elbourn and Taylor Grodin, using Anime Studio Pro, Adobe Flash, Autodesk Maya, and Adobe After Effects. Green screen effects Coming soon! Editing and compositing Coming soon! Post production The post-production began in November 1, 2017, where it is supervised by C. Elbourn and Magnus Scheving and directed by Magnus Scheving. The sound production was created at Skywalker Sound in Marin County, California. Sound editors Tom Myers, Teresa Eckton and Chris Boyes, and sound designer Gary Rydstrom design the sound and then edit it, next sound recorder Magnus Scheving recorded the sound for Gary Rydstrom and Tom Johnson to edit and mix it, then sound re-recording mixers Tom Johnson and Gary Summers re-recorded the sound and mix it. Stereoscopic 3D production was directed, supervised, created, and animated by C. Elbourn and Rod Daniel. Rod Daniel was an advanced Scratcher from Scratch, a popular educational website made by the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in Boston, Massachusetts. Stereoscopic 3D production was also created and animated by Legend3D. The digital imaging services are at Technicolor Digital Intermediates, where they time the color of the film, and cut the negative clips into the film. The opening titles are created by Blur Studio and Pacific Title, while the end credits are created by Scarlett Letters. Sound effects Coming soon! Music The music was composed by Mani Svavarsson, the composer for the original LazyTown TV series, with help from Alan Menken and John Debney. The music is a mix of pop and orchestrally classical music. The music production was recorded, mixed, edited, and created at Sony Pictures Studios in Culver City, California and 20th Century Fox's Newman Scoring Stage in Los Angeles, California. Release The film was released on October 12, 2018, by Warner Bros. Pictures. Marketing On November 10, 2017, the teaser trailer was released on YouTube. The trailer makes the movie look like an action-thriller movie at first until the hero is revealed to be Stingy. He then says, “This movie is mine.” It then cuts to the LazyTown logo, while a shiny “The Movie” appears underneath it. The trailer gained 2 million views within 24 hours of its upload. On June 15, 2018, Warner Bros. unveiled the theatrical release poster and the official trailer. The trailer debuted during theatrical showings of Incredibles 2. Thinkway Toys released a line of action figures based on the film, Pop! Vinyl also released a line of vinyl figures, which includes Sportacus, Stephanie, Robbie Rotten, and Stingy. McDonald's produced a set of 8 toys in McDonald's Happy Meals. In the Australian market, a few small plush characters of Sportacus, Stephanie, Robbie Rotten, Stingy and Ziggy replace some of the toys in the US lineup. Ten books were released for the film: The Junior Novel, Sticker Activity Book, The Movie Storybook, The Revenge of Robbie Rotten!, Coloring & Activity Book, The Funny Joke Book, Meet the Gang, The Art of LazyTown: The Movie, Big Robbie, Little Robbie, and Sportacus' Paint Box. Home media The film was released on digital platforms on January 22, 2019, and on DVD and Blu-ray on February 5, 2019. Reception Box office LazyTown: The Movie has grossed $325.1 million in the United States and Canada, and $361.8 million in other territories, for a total worldwide gross of $686.9 million against a production budget of $190 million. In the United States and Canada, LazyTown: The Movie was released alongside the opening of Goosebumps 2: Haunted Halloween, and was projected to gross $38–45 million from 4,267 theaters in its first weekend. The film made $1.3 million from its early 3PM screenings held by Amazon on September 30, and $2.6 million from screenings beginning at 5PM the Thursday before its official release. It went on open to $44.1 million, finishing first at the box office. The film made $23.2 million in its second weekend, finishing second. It made another $12.3 million in its third weekend, finishing fourth. Critical response LazyTown: The Movie received universal acclaim from both critics and audiences worldwide. The film got a 100% rating on Rotten Tomatoes saying "LazyTown: The Movie is a wonderful, awesome, and professional way to end a terrific show." Category:EvanRocks Wiki